This invention relates to a process, as well as a device, for introducing a plurality of segregated sheet-like administration forms into a dispenser under formation of a multilayered stack for individually dosable removal, with sheet-like tapes, wound in coils, being present as starting material. The administration forms may for application thereof contain therapeutic or cosmetic or food-technological products.
Flat-shaped administration forms intended for use in the oral region and on the mucous membranes of the mouth are known. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 3,444,858 (1969) describes medicament strips on the basis of a gelatinous material.
Furthermore, proposals to use such sheets outside the medical field are known. In EP 0 216 762 there is disclosed a water-soluble sheet of starch, gelatine, glycerine or sorbite, which is coated by means of a roll coater. It is mentioned in this document that such dosage forms can also be manufactured, for example, for chemical reagents, flavours and the like.
On the market, administration forms with single-unit dispensers made from plastics material have been available since about 1995 and have become established in the fields of application of cosmetics and sweets. In this regard, mention is made here of the product by Nisshin, Japan. The single-unit dispensers contain stacks of superimposed sheet sections which permit the individual removal of the respective upper piece of sheet after opening of an opening lip.
The technical solution to the task of producing and packaging such stacks of sheet-like starting material is, however, difficult. The literature provides no practicable instructions for their manufacture. Only U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,558 describes the stacking of edible webs, which are, however, laminated together one upon another at their edges and which therefore are unsuited for the aforementioned mode of application.
Since such sheet-like administration forms tend to become statically charged owing to their small weight per unit area, e.g. between 10 and 50 g/m2, and since the surfaces must be adapted so as to be slidable for ready removal of the webs, it is only with great difficulty and great expenditure of time that one succeeds in the accurately positioned cutting and superimposing of the sheet sections.
Observing the manufacturing techniques in industrial fields such as the manufacture of paper or the packaging of plastics bags does not provide any practicable suggestions for solving the problem. Although U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,014 describes the formation of stacks from two different types of paper in partially overlapping arrangement with the aid of vacuum suction transfer rolls, this technique, like the technique for stacking paper known also from U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,527, describes a comparatively time-consuming process involving individual cuts from a roll and individual deposition on a stack.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,650 describes the formation of a web of paper from a roll, said web being folded in a zig-zag configuration and from which, by means of cutting, there results a stack. A disadvantage of this approach are the cuttings of the material. If the upper and bottom faces of the web have different structures, or in the case of undulation, it is not possible to stack the individual sheets with their original upper side facing upwards.
Starting from the aforementioned state of the art, it is the object of the present invention to provide a process and a device of the kind in which a plurality of administration forms are introduced into a dispenser as a stack of sheets which, while avoiding the aforementioned disadvantages and difficulties, enables the introduction into a dispenser of individually dosable sheet-like administration forms into a dispenser in a precise manner and at high process speeds and under formation of a multilayered stack, with sheet-like tapes, wound-up in coils, being present as starting material.